Second arrest for hoax call death

A second youth has been arrested in connection with a prank call to businessman Paramjit Singh Jaggi, who died on March 16 after the caller told him that his son had been kidnapped.

Debabrata Mondal, 36, who was picked up from Sagar in South 24-Parganas on Tuesday, has allegedly been named by co-accused Arun Giri as the one who had made the call. Giri, also a resident of Sagar, was arrested on Saturday.

Mondal has been booked under the same charges as Giri — IPC Section 304 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder).

Jaggi’s son Amardeep, 32, was in Singapore on vacation when the “ransom call” came. Amardeep, who had left on March 14, didn’t have international roaming on his phone and so couldn’t be contacted immediately.

Jaggi, who lived in an apartment on Ballygunge Circular Road, fell ill after getting the call and was taken to a private hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

Sleuths said they came to know about the involvement of several youths in the plot while questioning Giri.

“We interrogated five youths and narrowed down our primary suspicion to Debabrata Mondal. We made Giri and Mondal sit face to face. Mondal was arrested based on Giri’s statements,” said an officer.

An officer quoted Giri as saying that Mondal, a farmer, had told Paramjit over the phone that his son Amardeep had been kidnapped and demanded a ransom of Rs 7 lakh.

The phone, police sources said, belonged to Giri.

A criminal lawyer said if it is proved that the caller had the “intention to kill” Jaggi, he could be handed a life term.

“If it emerges that he knew that such a call could kill someone but did not have any intention to kill, he can be jailed for up to 10 years.”

The SIM card that was used to make the call had been taken under a fictitious name and address.

The police are yet to find out how Giri had got hold of a visiting card of Jaggi, who ran a business of manufacturing earth-moving equipment in Calcutta.

After his arrest, the police found the card on Giri.

Cops suspect Giri, who used to drive payloaders, got the card from one of Jaggi’s clients.